Tidying part 2

I started clearing up the detritus in the cockpit, putting electrical bits with electrical bits, hardware with hardware and tools with tools. I still got rid of another sack load of litter.

After a couple of hours I'd reduced the quantity of stuff in the cockpit considerably. It took a good few more hours to get the floor totally clear. The big problem is I'm moving stuff from place to place and it's not reducing any. I'm definitely going to need a bigger box for electrical bits and a bigger box for tools. Tools, like wheels are something you always need.

Actually, the toolbox idea just isn't really working. I do, however, have some plastic drawers. They might be good for the electrical though since they're not really being used for anything much. One of my problems is I like electronic components. I've only got a hazy idea about electronics from high school so I tend to buy stuff and put it together in the hope that it'll work but it rarely does. I can solder decently though.

It'll take me a few days yet to get everything into order in the bus. 

One of the things I thought of was if I weld steel over the two windows on each side of the back door, I'm going to need something to arrest sparks. Thus I went to cut another piece of fridge or freezer door. The disc in the angle-grinder was mostly used but I was able to make the first two cuts well enough. The third went OK though I had to hold the grinder at a strange angle to be able to complete it. The fourth was when the grinding wheel became so small that cutting was not possible.

I had to hunt out the tool to remove the grinding disc. That, needless to say, was at the bottom of the tool box. So, the next thing was to find the cutting discs. That took a positive age by which time I'd misplaced my safety glasses. I took the disc out to the angle grinder hoping I'd left the safety glasses out there but I had not. I left the new disc with the angle grinder and went and hunted all over the bus for the safety glasses. I found those and put them with the disc and the grinder but realised I'd by now misplaced the tool. I went back to the bus and hunted everywhere, even going through the tool box again with no luck. Then I decided to check where I'd found the cutting discs. Steadying myself as I leaned over by placing my hand on the back of the driver's seat, I found the tool - exactly where I'd left it - perched on the back of the driver's seat.

Returning to the fridge, I finished cutting the steel. I didn't have time to clean the insulation off it - that's a job for another day as is trimming it to the right size to use as a spark arrester. What it's going to do is to slip into place inside the bus to be held in place by my Harbor Freight welding magnets while I weld a sheet into place from the outside that fills the window aperture. Honestly I wish I'd known how to weld before I started the bus project. I'm sure things would have been so much faster and easier still, if there is a next time, I'll know for the next time. One thing's for sure - I know how to build a trailer if I ever want one!

This week I hope to get the bus completely tidied. I still have a few things in the cockpit but mostly stuff centered around small projects. I might be able to get the fuse box into the console and the new rectifier into place lickety split now that I can actually sit on the driver's seat!

Tidying the bus

Today as it was getting harder to get the right tools when I needed them, it was clearly time to start tidying inside the bus. It's looked like a tool volcano had erupted for quite a while. Thus I got down to it.

The first thing to remove was much of the trash. You wouldn't believe how quickly trash builds up from wrappers and boxes and envelopes. Just about everything I buy either comes online in an envelope or box with lots of associated packaging or from a store in a big plastic bubble container. There's absolutely no need for all this plastic packaging. People have sent things from one side of the world to the other, successfully, packed in straw, crumpled paper and cotton for centuries.

After a trashcan full of trash, I got to the tools. A couple that are unlikely to be used again on the bus project I put in the shed. That will likely happen to a few more. When the bus is completed I will only need standard maintenance tools on the bus together with spares such as bulbs and fuses.

Then it was a case of picking up the smaller stuff like sockets and wrenches then dumping them in the tool box. Slowly I'm getting there but it won't be done today. It might be done tomorrow or more likely on my day off on Tuesday.

Looking around I can see all the projects I have on the go:

• The 3rd battery holder. I built the base yesterday. I have to build the rest of it next. For that I might have enough steel angle or I might not. I'll have to measure very carefully.
• The new roof vent. I found my tube of epoxy putty and the new roof vent and put them carefully to one side.
• A fuse box to put in the control console in order to replace the huge array of inline fuses.
• A solidly built bridge rectifier to replace the rectifier I put together for the front solar panel. No great improvement - it just looks prettier.
• Sheet metal to go over the back windows. I'd originally put a sheet of metal on the inside of the bottom door window to prevent somebody entering after kicking out the glass. Now I think it'd be an excellent idea to have sheet metal in place of the window. For that matter I should do all of the back windows. I have no need for windows at the back of the bus! Two are covered by wooden panels and one has a steel panel over it. The fourth window isn't really needed either.

The sheets of metal for the back windows went to the back of the bus. That's a project that is not urgent and unlikely to be completed soon. The current project is the battery holder. That will need more welding. The roof vent again is not a project that's going to be completed soon. That also got stored at the back. As for the fuse box and the bridge rectifier - those are jobs that will take but a few minutes. The reason they have been left is because of the massive tool volcano that had subsumed the driver's seat. Needless to say I'd have to sit on the driver's seat to complete those projects.

During my sorting I found this. It's an old Hyperdrive HD80. It's from my days when I'd had a photography "business". I say "business" because there is no actual business in photography. At best it's a hand to mouth existence that has been largely killed off by digital imaging and cellphone cameras. Anyway, an abusive individual in my past had not actually persuaded me to start this business but more bullied me into it. Needless to say, there never was any actual income - more outgoings on gear. Most of that was lost money. This is one of the last remnants of that nightmare period. So having found that I've put it up for sale on Craigslist. eBay is just not worth the auction fees. Like as not I'll get no takers and will end up tossing it into the trash despite the fact that new it  cost $270. That misadventure cost me about $8,000 and after selling as much as I could of it (some just had no takers and had to be thrown in the trash) I think I got maybe $1,200 back.

A step toward a battery holder

What? Another battery holder? Well, yes. The two house batteries I have are doing an excellent job but in order to run the extraction fans decently I do need to add a 3rd battery. I'd decided this months ago and had tried running the fans directly from solar which had worked very well. I wanted more of an inclusive battery system though, hence the addition of the new battery mount.

I started by doing the usual measuring of a standard U1 battery and then added half an inch to the length and width. As this battery will be mounted in the battery compartment with my driving batteries, I decided to do a slightly different mount from that used in my two battery hangers. I couldn't have the tie down sticking out the side - I needed a piece of flat steel on each side just to protect the batteries next to it.

So, I cut the main pieces. This is a fraction longer than the group 31 batteries used for starting the bus but that's no problem - the battery bay is massive. It's possible to see where the U1 battery is going to go!

Having cut the basics of the battery holder, I added the sides and the anchors for the battery tie down. That was all pretty straightforward. It used up most of my 72 inch piece of steel angle.

By the end of the cutting all I had left was a 3 inch piece. I'd used 69 inches of steel angle. Of course, during construction, one of my tie down anchors needed modification so I modified it. Then the modified anchor fell into the leaves and I couldn't find it even with a magnet! There was only one thing to do - cut another. That took a minute or so with the angle grinder (who on earth uses a saw to cut steel). Then several minutes drilling the anchor hole with a 5/16 drill bit in a Harbor Freight mains power drill set on low speed. In order to save the drill bit from burning out, I used low speed and lubricated the drill site with WD40, reapplying WD40 every minute or so.

Eventually, welding time arrived. I started by using 3/32 6011 rods but they were slow going. Then I found my 7014 1/16 rods and went quite a way with those before deciding to try my 5/64 6013 rods. Well, I laid my best bead ever with the 5/64 rods. The only problem was it didn't adhere properly. That steel is anything but clean! I chipped the 6013 off and went back to my 7014 rods and completed the task thus far.

The next stage will be to put an upright close to the far end on which I can attach a sheet of flat steel through which I can mount the battery kill switch that I've been using for the driving batteries. To that upright I will also add a couple of threaded sleeves. That way in order to get it secured tightly to the battery compartment all I have to do is to tighten the bolts against the existing battery retaining strap. This also allows the next set of group 31 batteries to be a slightly different size. Batteries in the same group are only nominally the same size. I found that out with my U1 batteries.

With luck and a fair wind I should be able to complete this tomorrow!